Staten Island's Wagner College football team beats Colgate, 31-20, to advance in NCAA playoffs (photo gallery)

Head coach Walt Hameline's Wagner College defeated Colgate 31-20 in the first round of the NCAA playoffs Saturday at Grymes Hill.Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores

Wagner College is headed to Eastern Washington University and Cheney, Wash., in their postseason football journey.

The Northeast Conference champion Seahawks will take a nine-game winning streak on the 2,600-mile trek for the second round of the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision playoffs next Saturday after beating turnover-plagued Colgate, 31-20, Saturday afternoon before 3,032 fans on Grymes Hill.

The Seahawks (9-3) had led 24-14 at halftime before Nick Doscher's 6-yard TD pass to David Crawford with 9:15 left in the fourth quarter salted the game away. It capped a time-consuming 73-yard drive.

Doscher rushed for one touchdown and threw for two more to become the school's all-time leading passing yardage leader, while junior running back Dominique Williams gained 106 yards on 21 carries, including a 10-yard TD run early in the second quarter that made it 14-0.

It was the first meeting between the teams and one Wagner won't soon forget.

Wagner struck first, stopping Colgate on its first possession as Port Richmond HS product Torian Phillips intercepted a pass by Colgate signal-caller Gavin McCarney and returned it 28 yards to the Colgate 17.

On Wagner's first play from scrimmage, Doscher connected with Anthony Carrington on a 17-yard strike in the back of the end zone for a touchdown. It was Doscher's 192nd straight pass without an interception.

Meanwhile, the Wagner defense did a decent job limiting the potent Colgate running game, which had been averaging 294 yards a game.

The Patriot League champion Raiders had five turnovers as McCarney, the conference offensive player of the year, lost three fumbles and threw two interceptions, both by senior cornerback Phillips.

The Seahawks face No. 2-seeded Eastern Washington, which had a bye to the round of 16, next Saturday at 6 p.m. (EST).

Early in the second quarter, Williams gave the Seahawks a 14-0 advantage with a bruising 10-yard scoring run in which he bulldozed several Colgate tacklers to get into the end zone.

But Colgate answered with a 61-yard scoring drive, capped by McCarney's 4-yard TD scamper. The extra point cut Wagner's lead in half.

Not to be outdone, Wagner embarked on its own long drive (63 yards), culminating in Doscher's 13-yard TD run up the middle to make 21-7.

With Wagner leading by 14 and punting from its own end zone with 1:15 remaining in the half, Vince Myers blocked the punt and Demetrius Russell recovered in the end zone to pull the Raiders within 21-14.

Operating with under a minute left in the half, Doscher directed the Seahawks on a march that got Wagner to Colgate's 29-yard line, where David Lopez kicked a 46-yard field goal as time expired to make it 24-14.

Following Doscher's connection with Crawford, Colgate answered with a 2-yard TD blast by running back Jordan McCord with just under six minutes left in the game. The PAT was missed and Wagner had a 31-20 lead.